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It's also worth noting Singapore is certainly not a market-based system. Singapore's healtcare efficiency is completely the result of mandatory saving programs,

by redy 9y ago

It's also worth noting Singapore is certainly not a market-based system. Singapore's healtcare efficiency is completely the result of mandatory saving programs, a government funded insurance scheme for the poor and strict price controls[1]. As for China frankly I don't think anybody would seriously want to replicate what passed for healthcare in China. It's disturbingly common for patients to die because they cannot afford even routine surgeries in China. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Singapore#Funding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Singapore#Fundin...

Jabanga 9y ago
Singapore's healthcare system is more market based than the EU's, and other than the guarantee of government coverage (despite spending much less per capita on its public healthcare program than the US), than the US's. The mandatory health savings accounts are not redistributive. Each account is funded by the individual that makes use of it. And the individual decides how much to spend out of it, and with which provider, so it turns the individual into a price-conscious consumer. In the US, leftists would call such a program 'regressive' and a form of privatisation. So for the reasons mentioned, I think it's reasonable to suspect that the relative efficiency of Singapore's healthcare system is due to the greater role that market forces play in it.
- redy 9y ago
  I suspect that this is not the case and I can't find anybody else that seriously argues this. Singapore's efficiency is due to price controls and government coverage of the poor [1] and mandatory saving (in that order). Calling Singapore a market-based system is very misleading. Remove the price controls and remove the coverage for the poor and I guarantee you that you'd see the same runaway costs that the US knows all too well. This isn't exactly rocket science and I don't see how you can call a market where the government strictly controls the prices [2] and compels participation to be a "free market" or "market based." (Then again, because health providers are compelled by law to provide their services to the poor even though the poor cannot pay it's pretty clear that there is no such thing as a modern market-based health care system. This is essentially an oxymoron.) [1] http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/07/30/you_contain_health_care_spending_with_price_controls.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/07/30/you_contain_h... [2] http://www.thenational.ae/world/southeast-asia/singaporean-health-care-balances-free-market-principles-with-pragmatic-intervention http://www.thenational.ae/world/southeast-asia/singaporean-h...

by redy 9y ago

Jabanga 9y ago

Singapore's healthcare system is more market based than the EU's, and other than the guarantee of government coverage (despite spending much less per capita on its public healthcare program than the US), than the US's. The mandatory health savings accounts are not redistributive. Each account is funded by the individual that makes use of it. And the individual decides how much to spend out of it, and with which provider, so it turns the individual into a price-conscious consumer. In the US, leftists would call such a program 'regressive' and a form of privatisation. So for the reasons mentioned, I think it's reasonable to suspect that the relative efficiency of Singapore's healthcare system is due to the greater role that market forces play in it.

redy 9y ago
I suspect that this is not the case and I can't find anybody else that seriously argues this. Singapore's efficiency is due to price controls and government coverage of the poor [1] and mandatory saving (in that order). Calling Singapore a market-based system is very misleading. Remove the price controls and remove the coverage for the poor and I guarantee you that you'd see the same runaway costs that the US knows all too well. This isn't exactly rocket science and I don't see how you can call a market where the government strictly controls the prices [2] and compels participation to be a "free market" or "market based." (Then again, because health providers are compelled by law to provide their services to the poor even though the poor cannot pay it's pretty clear that there is no such thing as a modern market-based health care system. This is essentially an oxymoron.) [1] http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/07/30/you_contain_health_care_spending_with_price_controls.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/07/30/you_contain_h... [2] http://www.thenational.ae/world/southeast-asia/singaporean-health-care-balances-free-market-principles-with-pragmatic-intervention http://www.thenational.ae/world/southeast-asia/singaporean-h...